One of our consumers ordered a sofa from Ligne Roset in St Laurent du Var, France. She made a down payment of 1.864 EUR and upon delivery payed the remaining amount of 5.000 EUR. The delivery date had been set for Nov. 4th, 2008 but the retailer missed the delivery schedule and offered the customer a replacement sofa (fabric) until the one she had ordered would arrive.
Since she suffers from asthma she soon felt respiratory difficulties as the replacement sofa was used, old and made of fabric. Ten days later the sofa she had ordered was delivered. The new sofa (extend-able into a double bed) started creaking after only a few days of use and this would cause her to wake up when turning over at night. In April, 2009 she called the retailer, informing him of the problem and asked for the sofa to be replaced with a new one. Two weeks later she was visited by a company expert to determine whether the product was in fact defective. Upon examining the product he agreed with our consumer.
In spite of this the retailer failed to contact her so she called him again in the end of May, 2009 and also sent him a written letter regarding her situation a month later. The retailer finally offered to repair the defective product but also informed her this would take six weeks. In the meantime they would provide a replacement - the same sofa she was given when the retailer failed to deliver on time. She rejected the offer, remembering the respiratory problems she experienced before. Because she was unable to reach a satisfactory agreement with the retailer, she contacted our center in September, 2009.
Our center got in touch with European Consumer Center in France and by the end of September, 2009 upon ECC-Net intervention, the retailer finally agreed to repair the product. He also agreed to provide our consumer for this period of time with a brand new replacement sofa which would not affect her health.
Consumer rights in defective products' cases:
- in other EU countries:
In all countries within the EU consumers have the right to return defective products and demand that the retailer repairs or replaces the product in reasonable time. There are only three cases in which the consumer has the right to demand a discount, or annulment of the contract (and, consequently a refund) : when it is impossible or unreasonable to repair or replace the product; if the retailer failed to repair or replace the product in reasonable time; if repairing or replacing the product would greatly inconvenience the consumer. Each EU member state also retains the right to improve consumer protection within their own legal frameworks.
- in Slovenia :
In Slovenia the consumer has the right to choose between repair or replacement, discount or refund. It's your choice.
If, when shopping abroad, you encounter problems regarding your consumer rights, contact our center for assistance.
